![[Uproxx Logo]](http://www.uproxx.com/wp-content/themes/ur_v3/images/uproxx_logo_2011.gif){kind=logo}
Mark Zuckerberg gets a lot of sh*t, perhaps deservedly so, for being all sorts of unseemly things — shady idea thief chief among them. But it’s sort of refreshing to know that he, like Warren Buffett and a host of other extremely wealthy people, feels that those who have should be paying more in personal income taxes than they’re presently paying in a time where the country is deeply in debt.
In fact, Zuck says he’s “cool” with it. For that, I personally consider him much more of a patriot than the people who love calling themselves patriots — those who endlessly bloviate about how their love for America is greater than everyone else’s, but then run around whining about having to make the financial contributions they’re asked to make to keep the machine running. How did we get to a place where wanting to avoid paying taxes is associated with patriotism, while wanting to avoid losing your life in a bullsh*t, totally misguided war is an act associated with cowardice and treason.
Anyway, stepping off my soapbox, here’s a clip of the Facebook CEO and President Obama from yesterday’s Facebook town hall meeting thing where the taxes issue came up…
(via Mother Jones)
![[avatar]](http://p.uproxxcdn.com/global/images/default-avatar.jpg){kind=avatar}
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2012/05/Picture-83-150x150.png)
![[image]](http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/thumbnails/130/110/2012/05/bono-main-150x150.jpg)
This shit is gay as shit. You sound like a queer ass liberal douche. People like you that think “lets take more money out of peoples pockets” instead of lets fix the problems that are inherently wrong with the system make me want to vomit and then eat it because I’m a fat slob and anything tastes good to me. Suck a dick hippie. You probably cry in public too. Be a man. Wanting to pay less taxes is patriotic because there’s too much stupid shit handouts and criminal ass collectivistic fucktard unions leeching money from people who work hard. I saw 3 people pay for beef jerky and orange bang at 711 yesterday when I was grabbing some cough drops with my hard earned cashed. Probably your friends.
Correction: Pay for beef jerky with food stamps. //done
haha. Congrats King huge nuts. you’ve really raised the level of discourse here.
Welcome King Huge Nuts!
Dude I love that chicken avatar!
Amen, huge nuts.
If you make $50 million and the government wants $25 million, you ain’t starving. But if you make $50,000 and the government want’s 15-20%, then you might have a problem. 96% of all taxes are paid by 50% of the people. The other 50% pay 4% and receive billions in hand-outs. Those in the middle get squeezed by both ends. They pay their share in taxes but don’t get anything in return.
These people do know that they can send a check to the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt, right? (Send the money to this office, not the IRS – the IRS will just refund any overpayments.) So they can start paying more right now.
Also, if Buffett is so intense about paying taxes, why is he leaving the vast bulk of his estate to the (Bill) Gates Foundation, thus completely bypassing the estate tax? (For that matter, google “The Giving Pledge” for a list of billionaires who are giving away most of their wealth… again, taking a huge tax writeoff in the process.)
In other words, I’m calling bullshit on such PR announcements. Pay up or shut up, plutocrats.
Fck it. I aint rich…tax those silver-spooners!
Really? I pay in the 35% tax bracket now. There are no “loopholes” once you make above a certain threshold. Everything becomes un-deductable, such as kids, mortgage, etc. You just have to pay. Capital gains are taxed at 15%; that might be the only “break” the rich get. Otherwise, you make money… you pay that 35% past around 350K a year.
So I can’t even lodge a complaint when someone wants to raise my taxes from 35% to 39%? Really? I can’t say “no thanks” without you saying I don’t love my country?
Get bent.
people who earn a certain salary should be allowed to keep 65% of it for themselves – the taxes are high enough now. I’m not a fan of raising taxes only on the rich, and I’m very liberal & middle class.
The tax base we currently have should be plenty to fund all the necessary government programs. The key is to use the money correctly instead of being overly wasteful. That will never happen as long as the GOP & Dems continue to see each other as mortal enemies and sabotage each other’s attempts to fix the system.
“this shit is gay as shit”
- King Huge Nuts
….such a poet, that boy is.
Fun fact: There’s a place on his tax forms where Zuckerberg can choose to donate extra money to the treasury past his tax burden. Last year only $100K was ever submitted through that method. If taxes are so super awesome, why doesn’t he throw a cool billion in there? Perhaps he knows that the Treasury Department is probably one of the WORST places you can place your money if you want it to do good. And that is the biggest argument against taxation that I can imagine.
There’s a pretty huge God damn difference between Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and people who make $250,000.
Most people who make $250,000 are by no means living lavishly.
For Zuckerberg, 4% is a little less fuel for his private jet. For people making $250k, it’s a year of their kid’s college.
So then they end up with federal grants and loans to pay for that college, and HEY! We’re back where we started!
do this rich dudes know that if they want to pay more in taxes, they can? the government will take their donations. no one is stopping them from upping their contributions.
I can see both sides of the argument. A lot of tax revenue goes to pure waste; at the same time, fiscal conservatives who shout down unions and welfare programs while championing tax cuts are totally disingenuous about the deficit impact of tax cuts (huge) and their record for economic stimulus (not at all well established). Hard to agree completely with either side. In the meantime, TDog, before you complain about tax increases, learn how to do your taxes better (just the info in your post is wrong, so I can’t imagine how many other deductions/credits/exemptions you’re missing out on)
1.) …people who are richer than you ALREADY pay more taxes…..each dollar earned pays tax…..so a guy who earns a dollar more than you pays more taxes…
2.) …..…feels that those who have should be paying more in personal income taxes than they’re presently paying in a time where the country is deeply in debt.
..so WHICH is it…..the subjects of the story should pay more in taxes…??……or they feel that OTHER people should be paying more…
…it’s not charity when you see a problem….and then rob SOMEONE ELSE to pay for the correction of the problem…..
3.) This country needs MORE earning taxpayers…..not higher tax rates….